TSKSML 35

Chapter 35

“Oh my gosh! You scared me!”

It was none other than April.

She had abandoned her own room and was sleeping on the living room sofa, covered with a blanket.

“Wh–what are you doing here?”

Helene asked, calming her startled heart.

She couldn’t understand why April would leave her big, comfortable room just to sleep on the sofa.

April stared straight at her.

The hands clutching the blanket tightened with a firm grip.

“Why are you only coming back now?!”

April suddenly shot up and yelled at Helene.

Her commanding presence made Helene instinctively shrink back for a moment.

In both her past life as Han Yena and her current life as Helene, she had never once been scolded for staying out overnight.

It was sad, but that was because no one had ever cared enough to worry about her.

“I… I had something to take care of. Were you… waiting for me?”

The fact that April was asking why she had come back so late meant she had been waiting for her.

April couldn’t say a word.

She was asking herself—

Was I really waiting for Helene?

It wasn’t a difficult question, yet April couldn’t answer for a long time, and that in itself was baffling to Helene.

Could it be… she really was waiting for me?

April was angry at the fact that she had indeed waited for Helene, but even angrier at the way Helene’s face seemed to be asking, You weren’t really waiting for me, were you?

That was just the kind of relationship they had—

Less than strangers.

At some point, April had unconsciously begun to open her heart to Helene.

That made her unbearably angry… and embarrassed.

Grabbing her blanket, April dashed up the stairs.

A moment later—

Bang!!

The sound of her bedroom door slamming shut could be heard even from the first floor.

…Why is she that angry?

No matter how she thought about it, asking whether April had been waiting didn’t seem like something worth getting that mad over.

But she also knew that if she asked why April was angry, that would only make her even angrier.

Dealing with ten-year-old April was exhausting.

Helene let out a long sigh.

After showering and changing clothes, Helene sat on the bed.

The past few days had been one disaster after another.

I wonder if Jaina’s okay fighting that giant monster…

In the original story, it was the Grand Duke—a swordmaster—who defeated the giant monster.

No matter how talented Jaina was in swordsmanship, she wasn’t at the level of defeating a monster that even Zieghardt had struggled against.

Still, with the quick-witted crown prince at her side, they shouldn’t be taken down easily.

Helene sincerely prayed the two would return safely.

And then there was the mystery of the “Faceless One” who was stealing the holy power of priests.

No matter how much she thought about it, even in the original <Wangong-an> from her previous life, there had been no mention of such a figure.

Why was he gathering holy power?

Holy power was already rare—this would make it even scarcer.

Could it be that even Saintess Angelina would be robbed of her holy power?

In <Wangong-an>, unlike the early and middle parts that focused on romance with the male leads, the latter half depicted the Herssen Empire being invaded by monsters.

Eventually, even the Demon King revived, and Saintess Angelina, together with the male leads, fought to protect the empire.

The last thing that should happen was for Lady Angelina, who would one day defeat the Demon King, to lose her holy power.

Angelina would soon arrive at the Rephia Palace.

Helene was also worried about what would happen when Liriana saw Grand Duke Zieghardt with Angelina.

Her head felt so full it was about to pop!

Crash!

Not a pop, but the sound of shattering glass reached her ears.

It obviously wasn’t her head—

The sound had come from the back garden of the mansion. Helene jumped up and headed outside.

The back garden was in even worse shape than the front.

It was completely overgrown with knee-high weeds.

Looking up, she saw that the glass of April’s second-floor window was broken.

The culprits were making a racket, clearly not trying to hide.

“The Emeldia family is ruined~~!! Beggar nobles, Emeldia~~!! Fallen nobles, Emeldia~~!!”

Six mischievous-looking boys were singing a taunting song.

From their shabby, worn-out clothes, they looked like commoners.

Judging by how well they harmonized, they had sung this song more than once.

The garden wall, which she was seeing for the first time, was covered with graffiti—

“Beggar nobles, Emeldia,” “Fallen nobles, Emeldia,” “Red Witch, die,” “Shame of the Empire, go away!” and so on.

Apparently, this world had its own version of internet trolls.

“What do you brats think you’re doing in front of someone’s house?!”

“Ahhh~!! Th–the Red Witch is here!!”

The boys screamed when they saw Helene and bolted.

Oh, you picked the wrong day to mess with me!

Helene ran after them with all her might, but chasing kids who were basically professionals at this sort of thing was nearly impossible.

Huff… huff…

The more she chased them, the farther away they seemed to get.

In the end, she failed to catch a single one.

From a distance, the boys jeered at her, giving a thumbs-down before disappearing from sight.

Panting, Helene ground her teeth in frustration and swore revenge.

But there were more pressing matters.

She ran straight to April’s room, where the broken window was.

Knock, knock!

“April, are you okay?”

Too worried to wait, Helene opened the door as she spoke.

Unfortunately, the window was right next to April’s desk, and she had a red bump on her forehead.

A rock lay on the floor.

It seemed the rock had shattered the window and struck her head.

The swollen bump looked so painful that Helene instinctively stepped closer.

“Don’t come near me!”

April’s shout made her stop in her tracks.

“This is all your fault! Ever since you came to live with us, it’s been nothing but bad luck!!”

April began throwing the old books from her desk at Helene.

Helene could only stand there and take the blows.

Because April was right.

It was her fault that the once-prestigious Emeldia family was now treated so poorly.

She had been the one to bring about the family’s downfall, the one to rob the three sisters of their future.

Even though, ever since regaining her past-life memories, she had been struggling to set things right, it wasn’t something that could simply be forgiven.

Even after hurling all the books, April’s shoulders trembled, unable to contain her anger.

The bump on her forehead didn’t really hurt at all.

The pranks from those stupid, immature boys weren’t new, nor were the shouting and graffiti insulting the Emeldia name—she had long since stopped caring about those.

What truly made her angry was something else entirely.

Last night, Liriana had returned to the mansion with a dark expression.

After endless questioning from April, Liriana finally revealed that Jaina had gone to fight the giant monster.

Saying she would return safely and telling April not to worry, Liriana had worn a face that looked far more anxious than her words suggested.

To reassure her, she suggested they pray to the Sun God.

After her prayer to save her father had gone unanswered, April had sworn never to pray to the Sun God again… but this time, she joined Liriana in praying desperately, begging for Him to listen.

The two had prayed until their legs went numb.

That night, Helene didn’t return to the mansion either.

Liriana, for reasons April didn’t understand, kept glancing toward the door at every little noise outside, as if waiting for Helene.

And truthfully… April had been thinking about her too.

Just half a year ago, when Helene hadn’t returned for over a week, April had hoped she wouldn’t come back at all.

She’d gone to bed, but couldn’t sleep.

On a whim, she had gone downstairs and found Liriana sleeping on the sofa under a blanket.

Both April and Liriana had fallen asleep on the sofa waiting for Helene.

In the morning, Liriana, eyes bloodshot, hurried off to the imperial capital for work.

And then, Helene had returned with a completely calm face, as if nothing had happened.

April had been furious at her teasing tone when she asked if she had been waiting for her.

Most of all, she had been furious at herself—for having waited, just like Helene said.

Helene was someone she could never forgive.

Had she unconsciously forgiven her already?

No—that was impossible, April told herself, shaking her head violently.

She had dreamed of growing up just so she could take revenge on Helene.

Not hating her would be the same as losing her goal in life.